In the last step you identified one or two or even more areas that you’d enjoy working in. You’ve got an idea for a business that should keep you interested in working on it. Let’s explore your business idea!

In this step you’ll look at some of the possible obstacles that you might face starting your business. The exercise looking at obstacles is meant to help you start to see all of the different things you might need to get started.

The list you come up with might look overwhelming at first, but don’t let it scare you! Depending on your business idea, many of the possible obstacles won’t even apply to you.

Exercise 5a: Make sure you’ll have customers
This next step involves making sure your business idea will get other people interested in buying your product or service. This is an important step because without customers, your business just won’t work.

Exercise 5b: Make sure you can pay for start-up costs
Lack of money is the number one reason new businesses fail. This exercise will help you make posters sure you have enough money to get your business started. This will increase the chances that your business will survive the hardest years – the first ones!